Athens prepares for Hurricane Florence, statewide emergency declared

Hurricane Florence is now expected to head more directly west after making landfall, crossing through SC.

"Plan to be without power for days", Cooper said.

"Unfortunately, Hurricane Florence is setting out to be a devastating event to the Carolinas, and potentially Virginia as well".

While Hurricane Florence has sparked state of emergency and mass evacuation, a very unfortunate weather graphic has managed to put a smile on those preparing for the storm.

Where we're headed: It's too early to tell exactly how Florence will swing through the mid-Atlantic coast, but Jefferies breaks down which companies are in its potential path.

The NHC is warning it will bring the risk of "life-threatening storm surge and rainfall" and "catastrophic flash flooding and significant river flooding" to parts of the mid-Atlantic states.

People fleeing North and SC clogged coastal highways early Wednesday as Hurricane Florence, a monster Category 4 storm, bore down on the United States east coast for a direct hit in a low-lying region dense with beachfront vacation homes.

With South Carolina's beach towns more in the bull's-eye because of the shifting forecast, OH vacationers Chris and Nicole Roland put off their departure from North Myrtle Beach to get the maximum amount of time on the sand.

Hurricane Florence bears down on Carolinas
Wild horses in the Rachel Carson Reserve in Beaufort, North Carolina will fend for themselves during Hurricane Florence . ADCIRC predicts Florence's winds will cause 9 to 13 feet of storm surge in some areas along the North Carolina coast.

The storm is now classified as a "major hurricane", meaning wind speeds are greater than 110 miles per hour.

The storm is still on track to make landfall in the coastal carolina region, but is starting to drift south. Officials say it is possible SC will bear the brunt of Hurricane Florence.

A unsafe storm surge will come before the massive storm makes landfall late Friday or early Saturday.

In Carolina Beach, an island community off the coast of Wilmington, 75 percent of residents have already left town.

President Trump is receiving regular updates on the situation.

The eye was about 530 miles southeast of Cape Fear, North Carolina, moving west-northwest at 17 miles per hour.

For many of those under evacuation orders, getting out of harm's way has proved difficult, as airlines cancelled flights and motorists had a hard time finding gas.

As the hurricane became larger and better organized Tuesday afternoon, mandatory evacuations were ordered for parts of South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. Cars and trucks full of people and belongings streamed inland. And there will be flooding in the inland areas as well. It is poised to slow to a crawl there and then drift to the southwest, unloading disastrous amounts of rain.

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